Yanni Wrap-Up (Rip Off Your Mustache & Save Yr Soul)

The final track of Record Club #5 went up today, ending an entertaining run through Yanni Live At The Acropolis.

Beck and Thurston Moore played or sang on all the tracks, while the band Tortoise was actually only on two of them (“Keys To Imagination” and “Within Attraction”). The session musicians on the remaining 8 tracks were Abraham Laboriel (bass), Jeff Babko (keys), Russell Ferrante (piano), Toss Panos (drums). On one song, “Nostalgia,” Vinnie Colaiuta drummed instead of Panos.

Perhaps because of the source material, but this album was pretty different than most anything Beck has ever done. Actually it is probably in spite of the source material, because little of this actually sounded like Yanni! In fact, Beck’s sounded more like Yanni on some of his own tracks than this stuff did (like “Acropolis Now” or “Touch Dolphins”).

Anyway, Beck hinted that there were lots of music allusions in their music on this RC beyond Yanni, like references to Stravinsky, Shania Twain, Bobby Brown. If anyone ever recognizes any riffs in the scores, let us know! (The Bobby Brown was on “Santorini” and they did The Doors on a track too.) You could tell the musicians were having fun doing this stuff. I am not sure how often I’ll be inclined to listen to this RC in the future, but I think it was a fun and worthwhile attempt. It really gets to the core of what RC can and should be; it’s not just covering something Beck and the crew likes, it’s taking a piece of music and challenging themselves with it.

No word yet on RC #6. Hopefully we’ll hear soon and it will start up next week!

Also, no more word on that new album Beck told Pitchfork about. Hopefully some news will arrive soon.

Yes Yanni was very interesting as a record club because it means freedom in a creative way. But I’d like a more “classic” choice for the next, I’d really like the Doors or Nirvana… Something hard to cover like that would be a good challenge.
I heard that Salma Hayek, Danger Mouse and Thom Yorke have been seen months ago in Beck’s house. Record club?

Also, I can’t wait for the (Rococo?) album? I love this name and everything it can represent in terms of Music